Friday, May 06, 2016

Nicole Mittendorf...and, Sadly, Gamergate

So I'm reading a series of linked articles leading up to this one about Nicole Mittendorf, who hanged herself up in the SNP apparently at least in part in response to cyberbullying and possibly workplace harassment. I'm getting madder and madder about all of this and then...bam...Dvorak drops the standard array of PC falsehoods about Gamergate right into the middle of the thing.
Online harassment is apparently a serious problem. But people who are really interested in that problem need to realize that Gamergate is not the example they want. By repeating the falsehoods about Gamergate, they are perpetuating falsehoods. If that doesn't bother them (though it should), perhaps they should reflect on the fact that, by perpetuating those falsehoods, they are helping to create the crazy left that they typically deny exists. And if even that doesn't bother them--and as much as I hate counterproductivity arguments--perhaps they should reflect on the fact that they obscure the real problem of harassment by driving away people who'd otherwise be sympathetic.
In the real world, cases are often messy. Thing is, very few people on the Gamergate side of things deny that online harassment is a problem. People on the anti-Gamergate side, however, refuse to learn about and/or admit what actually happened. Zoe Quinn is no hero, and neither is Sarkeesian. Quinn's a bad person, she treated her boyfriend horribly, and she (like so many PCs/SJWs) hides behind a smokescreen of "social justice" nonsense. If Quinn's boyfriend had treated her like she treated him, and had she posted it online, she'd be an online heroine, and her boyfriend would have been vilified. But there's a double-standard with respect to that kind of thing online.
And as for the Sarkeesian case that Dvorak falsely claims started Gamergate: no, it didn't. Also, Sarkeesian was assured by law enforcement that she was in no actual danger, but she canceled the talk anyway.
So...don't link the real, tragic case of Nicole Mittendorf with the PC bullshit of the anti-Gamergate forces.